I don't know what my child learns at school...

[Suzi7979]

Do any of you actually know what your Y1 child learns at school? The teacher never speaks to the parent, we haven't had parent evening yet and all parents wonder what the kids actually learns. The school is outstanding ( ofsted).

Just wanted to know if its normal to not know what the kids learn at school and which subjects they have each day?

Every school operates slightly differently. Where I work, we use Class Dojo and our website to communicate with parents about what the current topic is and what the children are doing on a day to day basis. It comes down to school policy and then teacher preference really - some staff update daily with pictures and news, some just once a week. I believe the basic curriculum is a mandatory requirement on the school website though - are you sure it isn’t on there?

Our school did some zoom sessions (from teachers to parents) at the start of the term to explain the curriculum, and we also had a zoom based parents evening

Can you not ask your child what they did at school that day? You might have to pull the info out of them a bit - did you learn about shapes, did you write a poem etc - but they should be able to relay some of it to you.

Primary school is very different to creches and preschools, the teacher has a lot of kids to cater for and can't be giving you constant updates on your child's progress and learning. Some will run things like ClassDojo but it isn't mandatory, nor should it be. Teachers have enough to do, particularly English teachers.

Thanks. All parents don't know what the subject plan is each day. We only asks our children and get a small idea of what they have been learning. There is nothing on the website either.

I never knew what they learned or did until parents’ evening when I could see their books.

I think maybe your expectations are a little off - you won’t be getting daily subject updates. There should be info on the website though, it’s an ofsted requirement.

Why would you expect to get a daily plan of what's being covered in each subject? And more to the point, let's say the teacher was to bring this in... what other duties should they drop from their workload to create space for this task?

Don't get me wrong, I understand that it would be nice to have more insight on what your child does when they go to school. However I don't believe the teacher should be doing it just because you'd like it.

Thanks. I see I had high expectation.

I'm a y1 teacher.

We do phonics daily, maths 4 times a week, writing 4 times a week. Handwriting. Guided reading every day. PE twice a week. Either History or Geography, Art or Design Technology, PSHE or RE. Science each week.

If you have any questions I can try to help.

Very normal not to communicate home what the timetable for subjects is home. No point either as primary is very fluid and, especially at year 1, they are less formal years. Even in my y6 classroom, things chop and change to suit the topics we are doing so it isn't always fixed.

It's good form to share what the topic is and a lot of schools use twitter or class dojo to share some photos or snippets of the type of things that they have been up to.

None of that was happening when my own DC were in primary, and I just asked them. If you get a 'dunno' or 'nothing' answer to the question 'What did you do/learn today?' that means they didn't have a bad day! Or change the question. Ask what they are learning to do in maths or in writing or topic. Or ask what the most fun they had today was, or what did they learn they didn't know. I used to ask mine to tell me something good from today and you didn't then get 'nothing' as an answer. Mostly.

The school should send you home a curriculum overview which tells you which topics are being covered each term.

My son is Y2 and I wouldn't expect a daily report.

We do get a half termly letter explaining what they will be doing and how we can support at home.

They also have class blogs where the teacher posts links/pictures etc. of what they are doing.

Overall, I think we are well informed.

I teach secondary and all our curriculum plans are on the website for parents to see. Each week there is a parent bulletin and we ensure any key info is on there.

We haven't got any curriculum overview. I will wait for parent evening.

In reception we got told in advance the topics that would be covered that term ie dinosaurs. And what area of maths and phonics they would be doing next.

Now, in year 1, we get given a summary every Friday of what they did that week. It’s a letter in their book bags.

We just been told we’re not having parents evening this term and will just receive the written report instead. It’s a shame but it’s difficult times so it’s fine.

Trying to get information from my 5 year old about what they do is difficult!! Usually either get “nothing” or “I can’t remember”.

I want my childs teacher teaching and not spending their time telling me what they are doing, my parents did not know what I did at school apart from parent teacher evening.

If my son's teachers have concerns they can talk to me about it if not they should be free to do their jobs